Easter Tour of the Continent

Geography.

Africa—L. S. Suggate.

Canada—The Golden Hinge—Leslie Roberts.

A Geography of Commodities—H. Alnwick.

English.

The Age of Chaucer—edited by Boris Ford.

Comic Characters of Shakespeare—John Palmer.

An Approach to Shakespeare—D. A. Traversi.

Religion.

The Growth of The World Church—Ernest A. Payne.

Christianity—Edwin Bevan.

A History of the Modern Church.

T.C. NOTE : —Chilman's work in the Library has been most useful. He continued activities in the holidays and it was a pleasure to find everything in apple-pie order on our return to School this term. We thank him for this very helpful extra work. A.D.H.

EASTER TOUR TO THE CONTINENT

This year a School party, 39 strong including staff, visited Innsbruck, the dates being left as late as possible in the hope of securing good weather—a hope that was fully justified in the event.

The outward journey was happily devoid of incident. There was snow and sleet all the way across Switzerland, and into Austria. Indeed, by the time we reached the Arlberg tunnel the snow was at least four feet deep, but on the eastward side conditions were much better. We reached Innsbruck in time for a late lunch, and spent the afternoon exploring the town. The weather was still overcast, and the town was not at its best, so that many of us got a first impression of shabbiness, which was largely dispelled when, on later days, the sun and clear skies revealed the attraction of the streets and their setting.

Next morning we continued to explore the town, and visited the celebrated monument to Maximilian, with his twenty-eight ancestors and models of knightly virtue. Of these King Arthur—actually the work of Albrecht Diirer in Nuremberg—stood out, we feel, because, if he discarded armour for tweeds, he would be the prototype of the English country gentleman. This was in sharp contrast to the hawknosed, hang-dog features of the Hapsburgs. In the afternoon we walked by Berg Isel through the pine woods to Igls. On the return some of us looked in at the Abbey Church of the Premonstratensian Abbey at Wilten, now restored after serious bomb damage. The heavy black marble side chapels were perhaps too massive to please entirely, but the whole is certainly a very fine piece of restoration. The parish church nearby was also visited by one or two; it is rococo of the purest style and entirely charming. It is a pity that so many missed it. 23

On Saturday we went by bus over the Brenner Pass into Italy. As we crossed the frontier we met brilliant sunshine, and our impressions of what the Austrians call Sud Tirol and the Italians Tridentina were of the best. Boizano, with its squares and arcades and street market and gay church roof and police with swords and cocked hats, pleased us all, but the most delightful town was Merano. This place, set among snow-capped peaks, and with a mountain river running through, was gay and clean, and its gardens were at their best with magnolias, cherries, cinceraria, jasmine, and many other flowers in full bloom. Here some of us were lucky enough to see two youths and girls in local costume. The journey itself is fascinating, with its mountains and castles, orchards and vineyards, precipices and waterfalls. In fact, for many this turned out to be the outstanding day of the whole tour.

On Sunday morning some went to see a soccer match (Innsbruck 4, Vorarlberg 1) while others explored the town and took the opportunity to take photographs in a brilliant light while the traffic was not too heavy. Some of these enjoyed the spectacle of a Tyrolean band in full costume, led by two girls, also in folk costume and carrying miniature wine casks, marching down the Maria Theresa Strasse. In the afternoon we took a bus to Neustift, the end of the road up the Stubaital, and walked back to Fulpmes. The party split up for the walk, and probably those had the best of it who took to the woods and alpine pastures on the west of the valley. The weather was brilliant, and the scenery the photographers' despair.

Monday was another day of very fine weather, and we went by bus up the Inn Valley as far as Telfs before turning north into the mountains, past the brilliantly green mountain lakes near Nassereith, over the Fern Pass (nearly 4,000 feet) to Lermoos, where we had lunch. The plan was to go by cable railway up the Zugspitz, but this was closed. The management kindly agreed to take us up to the first stage, and as this is at over 8,000 feet the ride was exciting enough. The last 1,000 feet or so we were unable to do, as that is in German territory and they had withdrawn their passport officer! However, the day provided a vivid experience. Some were lucky enough to see chamois; others enjoyed watching a ski expert. We returned via a corner of Germany, stopping at Garmisch Partenkirchen—a straggling town where almost every other car is American. The journey back took us through Mittenwald, celebrated for the paintings on the house walls, and over a winding mountain road with remarkable gradients and bends, to the Inn Valley.

On Tuesday morning we climbed up to the Hungerburg in the morning, only to find the cable railway to the Hafelekar closed for repairs. The substitute was peaceful refreshment in the sunshine with the panorama of Innsbruck below us. Very likely some thought that a preferable alternative. In the afternoon the party split, some going for a swim in the palatial but slightly crowded baths, while 24

others walked by a side road to the little unspoilt town of Solbad Hall, returning by an old-fashioned rattling tram with four trailers.

The last full day was spent on a visit to Salzburg. The journey took longer than we had anticipated, for most of the road proved inferior to our much-maligned English roads and much of it was narrow, winding and bumpy—the last a result, it seems, of frost damage. In the end, the three hours in Salzburg proved inadequate, and we came away with a rather confused notion, for it is not an easy place to grasp as an entity. However, we found time to appreciate the site of the city as we entered by a tunnel through the Munchsberg and contemplated the castle of Hohen-Salzburg, and to visit the Cathedral (sealed off beyond the nave while bomb damage is being repaired), the fountain where horses were washed, the fountain where the Virgin is striking down the Devil (one feels quite sorry for him in his anguish), the fountain of the Four Horses, the Franciscan Church, and Mozart's birthplace. Some of us penetrated to St. Peter's Churchyard, said to have been in continuous use as such for over 1,300 years, making it roughly contemporary with the School. The familiar cross-keys are to be seen there. When we add that some time was found for shopping as well, it will be appreciated that our visit to Salzburg savoured of trans-Atlantic tourism. The drive back was very good, especially by the wooded gorges of the Salzach river.

The last morning was devoted to shopping, the only difficulty being in deciding what of the many attractive presents to buy. Shall it be wrought ironwork, carved figures, Tyrolean hats, Tyrolean handwoven cottons and woollens, Tyrolean china, leatherwork, or liqueurs?

Some random impressions : wrought iron signs outside shops and inns (the Schwarzer Adler, where we stayed, had quite a good one); Rattenburg, the oldest town of the Tyrol, quite unspoilt by tourists, on market day, with the valley farmers at the cattle market; crocuses on alpine slopes; paintings on house walls, many of them delicately and skilfully done; cows at the plough and drawing long, narrow carts or loads of hay; deer-warnings by the roadside; sheep with bells; tracks in apparently inaccessible snow 7,000 feet up, seen from a cable railway; castles half-way up slopes or, more often, on isolated rocks in valleys; propaganda for the return of South Tyrol (it has been Italian since 1919); Italian enthusiasm for passport formalities and Austrian disdain for the same; alpine huts scattered over the slopes for the hay harvest, but mostly empty now; caraway seeds in the hotel food (we had them in bread, with beetroot, in salad, with soup— only one day was missed); the crooked church at Solbad Hall (the result of an earthquake c. 1700, we were told).

The staff, especially, but everyone in general, were much helped by our guide, Siegfried Haslwanter, a student at Innsbruck University. Our holiday also owed much to Herr Ultsch, proprietor of our hotel,

who met every request most willingly. Indeed, everywhere we found a friendly and helpful welcome, and the Innsbruck tour ranks as one of the best of the nine that School parties have undertaken. 25